“William Cosby… You Are About To Be Erased.”

I am asking you, the reader, especially female readers,to try and separate the emotion, the #MeToo, and the appalling treatment of women by those we once respected and held prominent in our lives… to explore a bit how Cosby’s betrayal also went beyond his disrespect for women.

Once the verdict was handed out in the courtroom,the release of emotions by those who were Cosby’s victims was more than understandable; they were vindicated and justice was served. There may even be more victims coming forth in the future, suggesting Cosby’s past alleged crimes against women was pretty widespread. The man is now a convicted felon, proving the validity of the charges of his accusers, who themselves will still go through their lives with the trauma of their experiences, but having some legal vindication. We.. the rest of society… are left with two questions. What happens to us who were not his victims… and, is it even important?

Cosby’s popularity rose to prominence for the Baby Boomer generation…. overlapping a bit in the early Millennial generation with “The Cosby Show”. I seldom watched a complete episode of “The Cosby Show” primarily because I just couldn’t wrap myself around what I perceived at the time as being a “upper middle class black family with white family issues”; while I could easily acknowledge that at the time period of the show (1984-1992) that there were in fact, in real life, dual professionally successful black parents, but that they were likely rare.. then why have a sitcom not being culturally identifiable? Now, very likely there are other folks who thought the show was some cutting-edge of black American family identity. After all, it was popular and it worked for many folks. Was my cultural bias showing through at the time? I was never racist.. but I will accept I had some bias simply because I had absolutely no point of reference in my world at the time to suggest otherwise.

I first encountered Cosby during the early 1960’s and into the early 1970’s. Comedy record albums were popular in those days… comedian David Frye did a great Nixon, there was George Carlin, of course… a guy named Vaughn Meader did a hugely popular comedy album called “The First Family”, in 1962… about the Kennedys. In 1963 Cosby came out with “Bill Cosby Is A Very Funny Fellow…. Right!” (the title was a spin of his comedy routine where he would end a joke with “…RIGHT!”). I recall laughing all over the floor in our living room to his rendition of Noah talking to God just before the Great Flood. (HERE)

“Cos”, or, “The Cos”, as he became known to the world back then, was a standup comic and did all the current variety shows of the day.. then in 1965-1968 did the dramatic spy-theme TV show, “I Spy”, with Robert Culp. In the 70’s he still did standup and introduced in his routines characters from his neighborhood… “Mushmouth”, “Weird Harold”, and the famous “Fat Albert” (who would always show up saying, “Hey, Hey, Hey… I’m Fat Albert!”). These characters spun off to a children’s TV animation, “Fat Albert & The Cosby Kids”.

In the late 70’s I caught his standup at a local playhouse in Chicago. In fact, it wasn’t long after my attending a Don Rickles show a few weeks earlier at the same place. Contrary to a Rickles show, Cosby never uttered profanity in his routines. I was doing real LOL’s when he did his rendition of a visit to the dentist office and working through the effects of Novocain.. along with his most popular “Noah” routine from the album 15 years earlier.

Going into the 80’s and 90’shis doctorate in education, his philanthropy, and causes for African-American families became his hallmark. He also became a regular guest on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson… and even had his own TV show.. “The Bill Cosby Show”, for a couple years. A speaker, honorary degrees from many institutions… outspoken about family life. In the early 2000’s he became outspoken on the improvements needed in black parenting.. the famous “Pound Cake” speech of 2004 is an example.

So what’s my whole point going down memory lane here about convicted felon Bill Cosby? He was a social participant in my life. As a kid I respected his comedy and acting. As an adult I respected his dedication to family, some of his political views, and certainly a perspective that African-Americans need to help themselves more, and black parents need to change their educational priorities. He was not afraid to include a level of black responsibility for their own economic and educational plight, as unpopular as that was with black civil rights organizations. He also had a run of family tragedy, placing him as being susceptible to fate regardless of monetary success.

So… what do I do with all that? It’s common with public opinion to want to erase a person’s accomplishments if they fall from the grace the public has bestowed on them. “The Cos” got convicted of rape.. and there’s likely more to come. Now we have to shun him.. turn him into a social outcast… make him into a “non-person” by tearing down the monuments to him and erasing all history and influence and popularity he has ever had in our society. The colleges and universities have or will have rescinded their honorariums and titles. There’s been some mumblings about his charity work and financial donations from decades ago being returned to him in order to place distance from being associated with his identity. Collectively we are forcing ourselves into not appreciating all he has done and all he has contributed in his entire career. His rape conviction means everything else he has done doesn’t count… shouldn’t count. We’ve reached the point of the old adage… separating the art from the artist.

Here’s the absolute truth…you can’t erase how any person has affected our own personal development. More sadly is that Cosby’s victims cannot erase the effects of what he did to them either. Yet the truth remains that his career accomplishments were substantial and a complete credit to his talent, charity, and compassion for youth development… in and outside the home. No question he betrayed a public trust to us all with his crimes. But there’s no denying the good to society he’s done either.

On the other hand.. “looking the other way” for some greater expediency is not uncommon in our land of bounty and freedom. One glaring example in my own book of cultural absurdities-turned-positive is the science fellow, Werner Von Braun. A full-fledged registered authentic Hitlerian Nazi from WW2, a former SS officer who developed at least two terror weapons of mass destruction, the V1 and the V2 rockets, that clobbered London and terrorized, injured and killed thousands of non-combatants. He and a few fellow scientists avoided capture by the Soviets by surrendering to the Allies.. and then avoided the Nuremberg war crime trials by striking a deal with the Americans to continue development.. that ultimately became our venerable Kennedy-let’s-go-to-the-moon space program.. and in turn ended up promoted to director of one of the NASA facilities. Now.. this little history lesson is meant only to illustrate that shunning celebrities and famous folks who have contributed a positive career, then being convicted of a major felony, is not necessarily some traditional norm here in America. We, the public, are a finicky bunch. In the history books Von Braun is looked upon as the father of the American space program… not a former Nazi SS officer who led the German rocket program in developing weapons of mass destruction, that killed many thousands, by using Jewish forced labor in factories in which many perished in the process.

But nonetheless as the years progress Cosby’s name of course will not be anymore identified with his accomplishments. As us Boomers die off and the early Millennials age, Cosby’s name will fade as a result of his crimes and those who were affected by his true accomplishments to society will be gone. Perhaps that is the true outcome to all this; knowledge of his good legacy will have vanished forever into the fog of historical criminal infamy… as it likely should. But the lesson here is not just “oh we sent a rapist criminal into the slammer where he belongs for the rest of his natural life; the bastard!”. That part just satisfies the justice system. The lesson is how we handle the legacy of accomplishments of such people who actually did some good.. before they did the bad… or in the case of Cosby.. doing his “good” while he was doing the “bad”.

He gets to appeal. His story is not yet over. But there’s no question he’s already been judged by the public… and that will affect his legacy however this all turns out.

14 Comments

Linda Sorci
on April 29, 2018 at 10:55 am

Doug,

In some respects I agree with most everything you wrote. The man should not be separated from his accomplishments and his positive affect on society any more than he can now be separated from his verdict as a sex offender. God has said that things done in secret would be revealed in the open.

As a 70-year old woman, I grew up with Bill Cosby and it hurts my heart to see what’s happened. Emotionally, it’s a rather bitter pill and I continue to wish it were not true. We tend to place celebrities on pedestals, never dreaming that they’re human, with flaws just like the rest of us. O J. Simpson is another great example of this. People wanted him to be found not guilty whether he was guilty or not.

And unless I missed it, you didn’t mention that Bill Cosby’s son was murdered. That changes a person in untold ways. That’s not meant as an excuse, but simply to include it in the equation.

So, finally, I come to this – justice is served.

Linda

PS: Hopefully this will post. Last week I was summarily tossed into a spam folder and the silly page said I didn’t appear to be who I said I was. I’m still laughing.

Good to meet you, Linda. Yeah.. about a week my site was messed up due to some crazy anti-spam plugin gone amok. I turned it off.. so now I put up with all the nonsense spam replies from Russia and other planets.
Gotta confess.. if that’s your last name it rings a slight bell in the recesses of what grey matter I have left; likely a phonetic reference to another.
I WILL check out the link. Just dashed into the house while installing a sat radio in a car.. and spotted your reply.
Yes.. the Cos did have a son murdered… I recall along a highway he was shot. His daughter recently died from an ailment. Rather than spell that all out on my post I rather blew over it by mentioning “personal tragedies”.. but you are correct.
I unapproved your other reply with the link to try and retain your request for confidentiality.
You are 70.. and I am close behind at 67.. and we ain’t done speaking our minds just yet. 🙂

As for the other comment, the only reason I thought it might not be for publication was out of respect for your blog – I wasn’t sure you’d want to post a comment with a link to someone else’s site. I’m fine with you posting it if you like. I’m quite sure you’ll find much of interest there. Blessings

I confess I know little about the Cosby sex case. And unlike many, I never found him that funny either. (I guess you had to be American, to really ‘get it’.)

But we also have these recent ‘historical sex abuse’ scandals over here. Some of the men were undoubtedly guilty of something, even if it took a woman (who was almost an adult at the time) more than 30 years to ‘come forward’. In some cases here, this has included, ‘cuddling’, and ‘touching legs’. In the more serious cases, it has involved the man getting his penis out, and occasionally, masturbation.
It has almost never included full sex, only in one case I can recall.

The other side of the coin is that some men have been accused, tried by the media, and then found Not Guilty. This means their lives and jobs are ruined, and many people still believe their accusers. One woman, 16 at the time, was discovered to have been almost 200 miles away from the town where she claimed the assault took place, at the time she alleged. Another admitted that she had not been out of sight of her mother, though the mother had since died, before she made the complaint.

Shattered lives, wrecked careers, and too many accusers jumping on the bandwagon. In among all this, I feel sorry for those who were genuinely abused, and now seen as little more than fantasists or money-grabbers, selling their ‘dubious’ stories to the scandal-hungry press.

Despite the convictions, there are no winners in this circus, except the media.
Best wishes, Pete.

You are absolutely correct in the only winners in all this is the press. The last few days, Ted Koppel from the old Nightline news show that started from the Iranian hostage crisis and ran for 20-some years… the guy has always been one of the old trusted news faces on TV from the old days.. he’s 80-something now.. and some woman came out to accuse him of consensual sexual liberties back in the 90’s.. and he was understandably livid and did a very eloquent defense statement… and he’s got a lot of female support defending him. His accuser’s story sounds so lame and certainly ill-timed to current events. But.. you just never know. And it’s not going to take too many fakers to shift this #MeToo movement into not being effective.

Still have a difficult time believing Cosby is guilty, but it is not easy to get a jury to convict. Cosby could certainly afford a decent lawyer or two.

Was not that big a fan, but I enjoyed what I saw. Whenever people think of Cosby now, however, they are going to think of that rape conviction. Overshadows his performances as an actor, as a comedian, and as an admirable public citizen. Just the way it is.

Never watched his show……too unbelievable for me….no large family is that goody goo……now I did have the hots for that cute daughter that was in “Angel Heart”…..as fr as Cosby goes…I really do not care but if these women get closure then I say about time. chuq

I don’t see the correlation with OJ Simpson (mentioned above by Linda) myself.
OJ was clearly guilty based on a substantial amount of hard evidence.
By contrast, Cosby has been convicted based on decades old testimony.
Yes, it’s a great deal of testimony…but that’s not exactly unusual in famous/well publicized cases.
People mentioned drugs and I have no doubt there was a lot of drug and alcohol use involved (which is a bad combination)
but not necessarily taken unintentionally. People who attend celebrity parties typically take part in drug and alcohol use pretty liberally (especially 60s, 70s, early 80s, the time of the “baby groupies”http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/25854/1/the-70s-groupies-who-broke-the-rules-of-style-sexuality
Ah, so empowering [/sarcasm]
I know plenty of people who look back on their behavior in the day and now regret it and feel they were exploited.
I know many many women who became blackout drunk from mixing drugs and alcohol and later try to piece together what they think happened (it tends to get more and more creative with time).

First off…How the hell did I hear nothing about this case until the verdict? The 1st Cosby case was everywhere. I also thought it was the only incident not past its “legal best before date”. It’s not like the “news cycle” has relegated the topic to the back burner. Every other time I turn on the radio, a News Update tells me about yet another celebrity waving his penis around. (Or worse.)

Second, as you said…Cosby was SO much more than just another comic, or TV star. He was around for a very long time. He broke colour barriers. He did work meant for kids, adults and both at the same time. I loved Fat Albert as a little kid, but was indifferent-to-negative about The Cosby Show…Yet I recognized it’s cultural importance. He was involved in charities & such and spoke out about “pulling up your pants” etc. But he also whored himself out to pitch pudding. (He should have pitched “Disco Biscuits” instead.) And he also had a “penis problem”, as my Granny used to call it.

But from this moment on, that’s ALL he’ll ever be. Nobody will ever get to see or hear ANYTHING else he did. Albeit deservedly, it’s a classic case of “building up” & “tearing down”. Unlike our simplistic society dictates. People are whole persons. We shouldn’t lose that perspective. (See: Germany & Hitler) As the late great Canuck, Alan Thicke, once wrote for another 80’s TV theme song, “You take the good. You take the bad. You take them both and there you have..The Facts Of Life. The Facts Of Life.”

Thanks to a Canuckistan scandal rag, Frank Magazine, I knew about Cosby’s troubles a good 10-15 years ago. They reported on an earlier incident involving a publication ban. So, I had time to gradually adjust to this. But it’s all still a tragic, unnecessary, disappointment that never should have happened.

But one thing I REALLY want to know…What about all those motherfuckers who aided & abetted him? The people around him, the agents who delivered women to him like pizza. Most of them HAD to have known/suspected what was going on. Some had professional responsibilities to protect their clients. Without the enablers, most of these incidents wouldn’t have happened. And without them, the whole thing wouldn’t have taken so many decades to have been stopped.

I hear all these kind of incidents (especially the ones 30+ years old) and I think this probably could have been stopped in it’s tracks early with a simple “Hey, Cos…you really need to stop doing that.” But because that never happened, they just kept getting worse.

You make a good point on what, if anything, should happen to all the support people who may have shuttled all the women to him. On the other hand.. the women were not kidnapped and obviously made some level of consent decision to visit Cosby thinking he was a “good” guy out to help them or something. So I am not sure his support people have any responsibility. In fact, it’s not like all these women were in a condition to scream out and be heard for any Cosby staff to come running to their aid. Likely they were all embarrassed and just wanted outta there. Also likely… no staff would be around anyway watching him or peering through keyholes. I dunno. Just speculating.

To be fair, every incident is different. I’m sure there were a lot of women we haven’t heard about who were using “the casting couch” to get ahead. And I’m sure some went in expecting that, or thinking they could just flirt their way into a job, but changed their mind when shit became real. (Funny how when a hero drops his pants, sometimes the star-fantasy fades.) But we’re talking actresses here. Historically, not the sharpest tools in the box. Some are so naive, they’d walk right into The Cannibal Cafeteria and ask “What’s on the menu today?” Protecting them is “their people’s” top responsibility. Even a decent pimp knows that.

I don’t know many specifics in Cosby’s case…but I’m pretty sure I heard The Cos had “home deliveries of women” sent by modelling agencies etc. In some of these cases, agents were sending unaccompanied young women to homes, apartments & hotel rooms for one-on-one meetings. (I know more about Harvey Weinstein and that was his hunting ground.) Most of these gals had never even met the man in question before. No true professional would EVER allow this kind of meeting to happen, especially given Hollywood’s LONG history of this kind of thing. (Pre-Hollywood “Hollywood” even.)

To be fair, (baring pre-existing suspicion like Harvey W) a person could reasonably assume nothing horrible would happen in an office meeting in a 20 storey building. However, even office space still wasn’t safe for some. But hotel rooms & homes??? ALONE??? NO WAY!!! Most of these surrounding people knew, but either didn’t care, or it was just easier & more lucrative to play stupid. (A few were victims themselves.)

My parents always told me to “never get into cars with strangers” because they didn’t want me raped. They certainly would have told me to “never meet a powerful stranger alone in a hotel room”. Never mind send me there. Sue-worthy unprofessional-ism, if not criminal co-conspirators.